battlematfandomcom-20200214-history
History
BattleMoor: A Fitness Fantasy Game was first conceived and developed by Brendan Bradley and Michael Eisenstein, two friends looking for a way to motivate their workout routines using tabletop gameplay. Brendan first emailed Michael a mock up of a gorilla performing a squat in October 2016 and the two spent the next year designing and testing the game under the development title "BattleMatFitness," noting they were working out using a table-top playmat. By adapting familiar tabletop elements like "variable cost" and "color combos," Bradley and Eisenstein found a way to keep workouts equally challenging for beginning and advanced players, with enough variability to play a unique combination every day for over a year. The original core values of the company were Player Equity, Body Positivity and Card Quality. Bradley wanted to make sure increased weight and ability did not automatically determine the winner and that all fitness journeys were represented. Similarly, concept art featured diverse body and character types to represent all intended Players. Meanwhile, Eisenstein valued premium quality cards, manufactured in the United States. After several test decks with a variety of manufacturers, the pair agreed on The United States Playing Card Company for their 50-Card Starter Deck. Early Press Buzzfeed TableTop Magazine Nerds & Wellness Medium Initial Crowdfunding On August 9, 2017, their Kickstarter campaign was successfully funded by 742 backers totaling $26,300 to cover the initial printing, artwork, video demonstrations and marketing. By October 21, 2017, all of the initial 50-Card Starter Decks were distributed to the campaign's backers. Patreon Launch In October 2017, the BattleMoor Fitness team also started a Patreon page intended to grow a private community built around the fitness game. On October 16, 2017, the team began posting daily videos to explain the 50 cards in the Starter Deck and to demonstrate proper techniques for each exercise. The team also used the Patreon page to focus on interaction and communication with the BattleMoor community members, called "BattleMates," offering advice, encouragement, and insight as the fitness game continued to grow and evolve. Fitness Forward By early 2018, the BattleMoor team had built a passionate, weekly user-base, a weekly podcast and secured limited placement online and in the 20-Sided Store in Brooklyn, New York. Unexpected changes within Patreon and YouTube's platforms altered the engagement and revenue security of the BattleMoor community and the team began developing a broader presence on Wikia Fandom, Facebook, Discord and Twitch while continuing to develop the game. Meetings with potential game manufacturers and distributors revealed the need to re-brand and conform the game to more scaleable tabletop trends like cost-efficient, overseas product manufacturing and inclusion of "game pieces" to offer more immediate "shelf value." In May, 2018, the game officially rebranded as "BattleMoor: A Fitness Fantasy" Game through a vote among the online community and players. Dice and Wound Tokens were introduced to the scoring and battling phases of gameplay while the creators began development of "Expansion Packs" and a mobile App incorporating the 50 Card Starter Deck. The first Expansion Pack was released as a limited edition perk to Community members in September 2018, introducing an updated Tri-Fold with detailed rules and dice key.